Louisiana Voice

Yesterday’s Washington Post ran an interesting in-depth series on national opioid death rates and its data, provided by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) turned up some interesting statistics for Louisiana where, with the exception of two parishes, the problem appears to have been minimal.

The highest opioid death rates occurred in the rural areas of West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky during the seven years from 2006 to 2012 when 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills were distributed in the U.S. by the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

It just so happens, to no one’s surprise really, that the Justice Department and the DEA battled against releasing the database on the argument that ongoing DEA investigations could be compromised. The information was released only after a protracted legal battle by the Post and the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail. A U.S. District judge removed the protective on Monday.

The national opioid death rate was 4.6 deaths per 100,000 residents with the counties having the most pills distributed per person experiencing death rates more than three times the national rate and 13 of those with death rates more than eight times the national average.

Between 2006 and 2012, there were nearly 1.4 billion (with a “B”) prescription pain pills supplied to Louisiana. Of that amount, 258,600 pills were distributed by Walgreen Co. and Northside Discount Pharmacy of Slidell received the highest number of pills.

The top 10 parishes by number of prescription pain pills for the same time period, in order, were:

• Jefferson: 190 million pills;
• East Baton Rouge: 139.2 million;
• St. Tammany: 95.5 million;
• Lafayette: 86.6 million;
• Caddo: 73.9 million;
• Calcasieu: 56 million;
• Livingston: 52.9 million;
• Rapides: 51.8 million;
• Orleans: 50 million;
• Tangipahoa: 45.8 million.

Tensas Parish with 578,340 prescription pain pills received, was the lowest in the state with St. Helena Parish second-lowest with 1,055,440 pills.

The two Louisiana parishes which show up on the map had death rates of about 15 per 100,000, or three times the national rate. Orleans Parish might be expected to have been one of those—and it was.

The other, Winn, is nestled in the piney woods country of north central Louisiana where an opioid problem might well be the furthest thing from residents’ minds.

From 2006 to 2012, there were 4.3 million prescription pain pills supplied to Winn Parish.

Parishes with populations comparable to Winn and the number of prescription pain pills provided them included:

• Jackson Parish, with about 1500 more people: $3.4 million pills;
• West Feliciana, with 800 more residents: 1.6 million;
• Bienville, with 500 fewer people, 2.1 million;

Lincoln Parish, with three times the population, received 8.2 million prescription pain pills, less than twice the number received by Winn.

And, it just so happens, the term of Winn Parish Sheriff Albert “Bodie” Little coincided with the time frame of the Post data. Winn and its former sheriff are featured in my book, Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption. I’ll get to that presently with a reprint of that chapter from the book.

But first, a little history of how things got the way they are, according to the Post’s series.

When Congress forced the DEA to agree to a watered-down law, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016, that gutted the agency’s ability to stem the flow of pain pills in 2016, the primary proponent to hamstring the DEA was Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tom Marino.

Marino was President Trump’s nominee to become the nation’s next—wait for it—drug czar. He devoted years to moving the law through Congress and it finally passed after another Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah negotiated the bill’s final version with the DEA.

As a stark demonstration of how money talks in Washington, the drug industry, between 2014 and 2016, spent $102 million lobbying Congress on the bill and other adverse legislation.

Marino accepted $92,500 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry between 2013 and 2017. Hatch, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, took in a whopping $177,000 from drug companies during the same period.

On Tuesday, Trump announced that Marino would withdraw his nomination as drug czar.

So, how is it that Winn Parish, with a population of fewer than 15,000 people, came to be identified as one of the two parishes with the state’s highest death rate from opioid overdoses?

Well, it should be pointed out that the death rate is calculated on a per-100,000 population and with a population of only 15 percent of that base figure, only two such deaths could escalate Winn’s death rate dramatically.

And while the Winn Parish sheriff during this time period went to prison for helping his girlfriend deal drugs, it was methamphetamines, not opioids. Still, a law enforcement officer’s participation in any illegal drug activity and the compromising of drug law enforcement across the board is raised.

Following is the Winn Parish excerpt from the book:

Albert D. “Bodie” Little: Winn Parish

It began in February 2011 with the first official word that Winn Parish Sheriff Albert D. “Bodie” Little was under investigation by the Louisiana Attorney General’s office. What was not said at the time was that he was assisting his much younger girlfriend in her distribution of methamphetamines. The announcement came on the heels of the execution of warrants and the collection of evidence at Little’s home and office by state police.

A year later, he stood convicted by a federal jury of drug trafficking charges.

Seven months after that, he was sentenced to more than 14 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty on one count of conspiracy to possess 50 or more grams of methamphetamine and two counts of facilitating drug trafficking through the use of a communication device.

The attorney general’s office became involved when local District Attorney Chris Nevils recused himself because of ongoing personal issues with Little. Louisiana is somewhat unique in that the attorney general does not normally intervene in local investigations unless requested by local officials as the result of a provision pushed by local district attorneys over the objections of then-Attorney General William Guste during adoption of a new state constitution in 1974.

Federal charges resulted from an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Louisiana State Police, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, Shreveport police and Bossier City police participated in the investigation. Ten people were indicted along with Little, who was in his first term as sheriff.

U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley said, “When law enforcement officers disregard the law it hurts all citizens. Former Sheriff Little knowingly chose to break the law and now he is paying the price for his betrayal of the trust the citizens of Winn Parish placed in him. We hope that this case, and the sentences imposed, sends a message that drug trafficking and corruption of those charged with protecting society from such crimes will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Little, a former Louisiana state trooper and former Winn Parish tax assessor was elected sheriff in 2007 and took office in 2008. Besides his drug trafficking charges, he twice asked the Louisiana Bond Commission to let him borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the office financially solvent. Revenues rose more than 29 percent from when he took office in June 2008 to 2010, from $1.7 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year to $2.2 million in the year that ended June 30, 2010. Despite that, Little incurred a $700,000 deficit in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010.

The State Bond Commission rejected Little’s latest request to borrow another $750,000 to fund operations. The Winn Parish Police Jury also refused to give Little any more money, citing the increases already given him. “Winn Parish wants good law enforcement,” the police jury president said at a special meeting, adding that taxpayers wanted the sheriff’s office run with the current revenue.

Little’s response was to threaten to close the Winn Parish jails and to curtail operations.

“What’s getting you in trouble is your deficit spending,” Said State Rep. Jim Fannin of nearby Jonesboro who was Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Looking right at Little, he said, “We try to work with you to keep you out of trouble.”

Fannin said commissioners looked at tax revenue the Sheriff’s Office has received over the years and at how much Little has borrowed. Members also noted how expenses increased and how Little had not reduced labor and other costs.

“That throws a red flag up at the Bond Commission,” Fannin said. “They ask me what’s going on. It puts me in an embarrassing situation.”

Little was also accused in 2010 of allowing a convicted DWI offender to leave the parish jail early, in violation of a state district judge’s order.

The investigation, indictment and conviction of his drug trafficking, however, reads more like the product of an overactive imagination of a TV detective series scriptwriter run amok.

Little, 61 and married, was accused of helping his girlfriend cover up her drug deals as a means of preventing her arrest. A state trooper who testified in Little’s trial, said, “It’s clear he wanted everyone arrested except his girlfriend.”

When Little was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2011, Federal Magistrate Judge Mark Hornsby said A.D. “Bodie” Little must get “out of the business of being sheriff” as a condition to getting out of jail.

Hornsby set Little’s bond at $100,000. Additionally, Little was ordered to take a leave of absence from the sheriff’s office, wear an ankle monitoring bracelet, and submit to alcohol and drug testing.

Little initially pleaded not guilty. His attorney Taylor Townsend of Natchitoches, said the arrest was political. Through Townsend, Little released the following statement:

A search warrant issued today at the request of an Investigator from the Attorney General’s Office in Baton Rouge has been characterized by Sheriff Little as totally unnecessary and an attempt to embarrass and intimidate the Sheriff according to his attorney T. Taylor Townsend. This search warrant sought to obtain a file from Sheriff Little’s office, which is a public record, and permission to take photographs of Sheriff Little’s home in Winnfield, Louisiana. Sheriff Little was completely and totally cooperative and the requested file was handed over and photographs were taken of his home.

Since taking office in July, 2008, Sheriff Little has worked tirelessly to rid Winn Parish of its drug problem and to see that its citizens are protected from drug dealers who were preying on young people in the Parish. He has worked hard to ensure that schools are safe and free of drug activity. He has obviously stepped on some toes along the way.

Sheriff Little’s political enemies have proven that they will stoop as low as necessary to embarrass, harass and intimidate him.  This search warrant ordeal could have been avoided if they had simply called Sheriff Little and asked for this information. Sheriff Little would have simply handed over the file and allowed the Investigator access to his home because he has nothing to hide. 

The root of this search warrant is a drug dealer trying to cut a deal to get out of jail. Obviously, this is more of the same—a political witch hunt by those who are either jealous or offended by his tough stance against drugs in Winn Parish according to Townsend.

You may purchase a signed copy of Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs for $30 by via credit card by clicking on the yellow button in the column to the right of this post or by mailing a check for $30 to: Tom Aswell, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.